Movies and Tropes: Don Bluth

For whatever reason, I found myself reading through examples on the Nightmare Fuel page for the collected works of Don Bluth. There are actually quite a few movies on this list that I remember fondly from my youth, like The Secret of NIMH, The Land Before Time, and Rock-a-Doodle. Of course, there was also All Dogs Go to Heaven, which I remembered only one scene in particular.

I remember seeing Thumbelina in the theater and being vocally disappointed in the movie (to the surprise of one or both my parents, if I recall), and I steered clear of the next few films he worked on. Scanning his list on Wikipedia, I think the next movie I saw was Titan A.E., which I enjoyed — still enjoy — I remember being pleasantly surprised by, and fascinated with, the moral flexibility of the character Korso.

I saw All Dogs Go to Heaven again for the first time in years and was surprised by, uh, it’s adult themes. Of all the films I’ve mentioned so far in this post, it’s the Don Bluth film I’ve seen most recently, and it’s instilled in me a fierce curiosity … to see how much of what I remember of the films actually happened, what could simply be attributed to nostalgia, and to see what I’ve forgotten about them.